Carson says 2016 run 'up to God' after pushing flat tax at National Prayer Breakfast

The pediatric neurosurgeon who shocked Washington by using his speech at the non-partisan National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month to suggest that the Bible calls for a flat tax now says that God might tell him to run for president in 2016.

As President Barack Obama sat just a few feet away, Dr. Ben Carson went on a 27-minute rant about political correctness and how Biblical "tithing" would make a better tax system. Fox News quickly heaped praise on Carson, while other conservative outlets like The Wall Street Journal and World Net Daily called for a presidential bid.

In a Sunday morning appearance on ABC News, Carson suggested that a White House run wasn't out of the question if that was what God wanted.

"It's not my intention to do that," Carson told ABC's Jonathan Karl. "But as I always say in every part of my life, I'll leave that up to God."

Karl also asked the famed doctor what he thought of President Obama "as a leader."

"I think he's a very talented politician," Carson hedged after a short pause. "There are a number of policies that I don't believe lead to the growth of our nation and don't lead to the elevation of our nation."

"But what I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation, not just people casting aspersions at each other," he remarked. "I mean, it's unbelievable to me the way that people act like third graders, and if somebody doesn't agree with them, 'they're this' or 'they're that' -- and it comes from both sides and it's so infantile."

Watch this video from ABC's This Week, broadcast Feb. 17, 2013.